Sydney Sweeney reveals if she would ever join OnlyFans as she reacts to backlash over THOSE X-rated Euphoria scenes

Sydney Sweeney has weighed in on her headline-grabbing Euphoria storyline and revealed whether she would ever follow her character's path by joining OnlyFans. 

After her character Cassie Howard turned to sex work on the subscription platform in the show's third season, some viewers slammed the plotline as a 'humiliation ritual.' 

In a new interview, Sweeney, 28, made it clear that Cassie's views and choices don’t reflect her own.

Speaking about the show's creator, Sam Levinson, 41, with Vanity Fair, she said: 'He sent me all the scripts and it already had all of Cassie’s scenes in it, the OnlyFan scenes, and he called me afterwards, and he was talking about it, and we talking through it all.'

'He asked me how I felt about it, and I told him, “Look, I'm playing a character.” Do I agree with all of Cassie's decisions? Would I personally make these choices? No, of course not.'

'But I'm an actor and that's my job and this is Cassie's life and to be able to do her justice and play her how she's to be played is to bring Sam's vision to life and to play Cassie in the most vulnerable and insane way possible.' 

'From the very beginning, you can see that Cassie has this need to be loved. She has a need to be validated by other people. She doesn't know how to love herself unless someone else loves her,' she said.

Sweeney added that she understood how Levinson 'got her to where she was in season 3.'

'I think she was more excited by the idea of all these people loving her and knowing who she is and feeling like her world isn't small.' 

Earlier this week Levinson defended himself against fan backlash over the shockingly sexualized direction Sweeney's character took.

Fans were outraged to see the actress perform nude in numerous scenes after her character Cassie started a new career as an OnlyFans model to make money while her husband Nate (Jacob Elordi) was brutalized by loan sharks.

But according to Levinson, who wrote and directed all eight episodes of the third and final season, it was Sweeney who practically forced him to include copious nudity for her character.

During an appearance on Sunday's episode of the New York Times' Popcast – which was released shortly after the Euphoria finale aired – Levinson said that he had initially considered a version of the season that was more tasteful and minimized nude scenes for Cassie.

After co-host Joe Coscarelli referenced the shocking intro to this season's fifth episode, which featured a bizarre montage of Sydney performing nude fetish scenes for her fans, Levinson replied, 'Well, it’s funny. When I first wrote it, I thought, "Well, maybe we shoot all of this and we don’t have any nudity." I was talking to her, and you know, [I said] "Maybe there’s ways to shoot around certain things?"'

According to the writer and director – who is the son of iconic filmmaker Barry Levinson – Sweeney put her foot down after he tried to chicken out.

'She looked at me, and she was like, "Are you kidding? It's like, I’m playing an OnlyFans model. You’re telling me you’re going to, like, skirt around it?"

'And I was like, "Yeah, OK, it's a fair point,"' he added. 'So there's always a discussion of what works best for the character.'

Levinson went on to praise Sweeney as a 'totally fearless actor' and said she was 'wonderfully professional' and 'show[ed] up game every day' to set. 'I adore working with her, because there's such a flexibility in terms of the performance,' he continued.

Ahead of Euphoria's shocking finale, Sweeney had a sharp retort of her own for critics who have slammed her raunchy scenes in season three.

The actress took to Instagram on Sunday to share a series of behind-the-scenes photos as she bid farewell to her role as Cassie.

One photo showed her with a yellow python draped around her nearly nude body during a strip club scene, while another saw her put her pole skills on full display, hanging upside down in a daring pose.

Sweeney later took to her Instagram Stories to share another snap of her working the stripper pole in a bedazzled two-piece outfit and towering heels while a crowd of men watched her perform.

In the caption, the star seemingly addressed backlash from critics who claimed her racy fetish scenes were 'degrading.'

'It's called… acting,' the blonde bombshell wrote.

Experts have also warned that Sweeney's career could be at risk if she continues shooting racy scenes.

There are concerns within the industry that the Euphoria star could become 'typecast', with sexualized characters becoming 'her entire brand proposition.'

Speaking to Fox News, crisis and reputation management expert Dave Quast said: 'Euphoria clearly helped establish Sydney Sweeney as a fearless performer, physically and emotionally, and that's part of why she broke through.

'The risk is that when the public conversation focuses more on the sexualized aspects of the role than on the performance, the same work that made her seem daring can start to narrow the brand.'

'Sexuality on screen is not inherently unserious. The problem is when it becomes the dominant shorthand for the actor.'

'For Sweeney, the challenge is not that she has played sexualized roles. The challenge is making sure those roles continue to read as character choices, not as the entire brand proposition.'